Frugaleers, keeping their frugal resolutions in the new year. Keep on, erm, resoluting!?

[Cagliostro]

Hello everyone! :)

£10 fuel for car. Will need more but this was an expensive garage and no points.

Try gammon on a bed of brown sugar in slow cooker. Le yum. For a 450g gammon around 100g light brown sugar in base of SC. I usually make a bit of a pile of sugar, gammon on top. High for at least 6 hours.
Spaghetti bol, beef stew, chilli, sausage casserole. Roast brisket of beef. 1/2 full Water, stock cube, onion, high all day and make gravy from left over water.

£2 cubs

Cag, I've got the shovel and an alibi.

cag absolutely.

Are you sure he forgot them? And didn't "forget" them eat them on the way home bloody love twiglets.

In bed. waiting for a cup of tea.

Made pasta bake for dinner. Dh late home again. 😭

Meeting lovely friend for wine and crisps and a catch up tomorrow. The. Out for theatre on weds then spinning on thurs.

Busy week.

Dh and I are staying at a swish hotel on Saturday night (fils Christmas gift to us!) yippee!

Last time we stayed there we took a bottle of bubbly, fil had also arranged for a bottle to be in our room and we got shitfaced a bit merry had dinner then went to sleep.

Cag was here all night Your Honour. We were chatting and munching Twiglets and drinking . All night.

Ha! No he wouldn't eat twiglets as they have gluten :o

He said he couldn't find them, as he looked for them in the biscuit aisle. BISCUITS. He didn't think they were classed as crisps. BISCUITS!!! I can't even.

Oh well will be in town in the afternoon getting jammies for the kids... I may just buy wilko's entire supply and fill the cupboard with them.

Cag, send him back out for them. That is unforgivable.

Aah. I'm glad I can rely on the Frugaleers to aid and abet be on my side. :o

Mmm twiglets.

Work today so should be nsd. Yesterday I renewed our auto aid so £42. Dh back in Kent today so he's dropping the dc at my friends at 7:20.

I just spilt my coffee down me

Cag seriously?! I'll give you an alibi! Why don't men just ask if they can't find something?

Doing a cover shift today so little opportunity to spend but we still need salad, batteries and sellotape. A nice eclectic shopping basket. Let's just hope the defrosted moussaka is edible or I'll need to add fish and chips to that lot.

Slow Cooker Recipe
Chicken Adobo
serves 4 to 6

3 to 5 pounds of chicken meat (bone-in or out is fine, your choice)
1/4 cup soy sauce (La Choy and Tamari wheat free are gluten free)
4 cloves garlic, chopped
1 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
4 bay leaves
1 1/2 cups shredded carrots
1 yellow onion, sliced in rings

The Directions.
Use a 6-quart slow cooker.
If you have the time to assemble the chicken in a plastic zipper bag with the salt, pepper, soy sauce, garlic, and vinegar the night before, do so.
The chicken will be much more flavorful if left to marinate overnight. Then dump out in the morning on top of the vegetables.
Otherwise, assemble everything in the morning.
Cook on low for 7-8 hours, or on high for 4-5.
This is done when the chicken is cooked through and has reached desired tenderness.

Cag LTB

Mammy that sounds delicious.

Keeping dd off today as she has a sore throat and still not feeling great, I am feeling a bit achey as well which doesn't bode well...

I have a Drs appointment that was already booked to discuss these headaches I keep getting and need to pick some food supplies up.

He sounds like my DH, Cag, he often claims that the supermarket had no cheese/coffee/yoghurt/nappies. I think he's just not very good at looking for things!

My DP manages to buy all sorts of "bargains" that he doesn't need and won't use but never seems to find coffee, apples, potatoes.
Always manages chocolate and alcohol though.
Thinks it's a total failure to have to ask. It's almost as if asking is unconstitutional.
I refuse to go shopping with him because he goes up and down every aisle in case he misses these"bargains"
Lists? Also unconstitutional!

Good luck at the Drs girlie.
I am moving bedroom today so the builder can knock through the wall of my tiny ensuite on the top floor today (3 floor, tiny, townhouse)
Then I will just need a greenhouse ( it's a must have), new windows throughout and a new floor downstairs. The previous owners put cheap laminate on top of the carpet but round all the furniture.

Should be LSD apart from £40 Tesco delivery

Freezing here so sat wrapped in a blanket, heating cranked up whilst youngest DD insists on running round in just jeans and vest. Just eaten a soreen toast me. Addicted to them with some melted spread. Yum

girlie can you get the once over from gp while there discussing headaches? Recipe does look fab.
My dh also doesn't believe in lists but the difference in cost of our shopping last week with having a list might have convinced him. When I asked what do we need this week, I'm met with 'the usual', there is no usual, there's no point in getting stuff we already have in! We now have 4 bottles of brown sauce and 3 jars of coffee due to purchasing the usual
He also can't do making do, if we run out of something mid week he has to go buy it & more stuff, rather than just using an alternative that we already have in. This leads to me adjusting our budget time and time again.

Did anyone get the YOU magazine with Daily Mail last Sat? It's my one regular treat & provides me with reading material for most of the week along with mumsnet. There's a 16 page pull out from Davina with fab sugar free recipes. I want to try them all. Her book is going on my wishlist.

So far today - £100 on trampolining (fortnightly so that covers a while) although I'd just got some overdue sports club fees in my PayPal so only cost £85.
£10 DH haircut - friend came round and brought her son who played with the Caglets all morning. Was really lovely as he has really struggled to trust other kids since coming out of school, and often doesn't want to play, but they actually all played really well.

Need to head into town after home ed work to get them new jammies.

Mammy i bought that book by Davina but was disappointed tbh, a lot of the recipes are just normal meals that you wouldn't add sugar to anyway and for the puddings she just swaps sugar for super expensive maple syrup!

Am back from Drs, she wasn't sure what to do suggest!! However is going© to speak to her colleagues and ring me later, one of the suggestions was a beta blocker which would mean taking a tablet every day so wasn't overly keen. The other alternative is an oestrogen cream which I am more interested in but the Dr was very up front and said she didn't know enough about it so will find out and ring me.

I am now very snotty - ugh but dd seems not too bad so am hopeful she will be o.kay for school tomorrow.

Spends
£23 in the co-op on mostly fresh stuff and loo roll. Picked up lots of fruit and yogurt for smoothies! Am a bit disappointed with the Lidl fresh stuff, it just hasn't lasted at all so not really worth it. The food we have now should last until next week now hopefully.

£6.20 calpol dd has decided she can't swallow paracetamol tablets anymore and won't have any other brand!

Might bake a cake this afternoon....

Thanks for the recipies, gamman on next weeks list, and got loads of odd chicken breasts in the freezer. I'll make the usual casseroles and bolognaise in the slow cooker, but the girls (ds doesn't do tea time at all well) are old enough to try some new things without revolt or refusal, so am game for ideas. Have found a Mongolian beef recipie on pintrest that looks very good, might try that too.

Been to get dd1's teeth assessed for orthodontics. Not bad enough for nhs treatment, which is good (as in theres nothing too wrong with them) and bad as we'll have to go private, if she wants them straightened, which she does. And living where we do it means Newcastle, which isn't very close by! But the lady we saw was lovely and said to wait a year either way, and get reassessed then.

As we were in a town, we spent £10 in pets at home, £14.98 in home bargains, and £18 in tescos. And I forgot to buy coffee.

£12.89 Tesco: salad, bread, onions, Calpol and an AK ready meal for DD. Oh and a meal deal for lunch for me.

girlie that's good to know. I can wait for it to appear in Mr Price or Aldi so at that rate, or request from library in true frugaleer fashion!

cag will you pick up jammies for dd also? the child is a beanpole she just keeps shooting up. She went to her sisters for a sleepover and I'd to find pjs that would not skim her ankles & embarrass us

girlie that's disappointing about gp but at least she's going to look into it further for you, and a pity about your dd and paracetamol tablets too hopefully it's just a phase.

My spends yesterday were €15 on diesel and €26 in butchers.

Girlie I know someone who takes beta blockers for migraines and has found they really help I know nothing about oestrogen cream though. Was the dr a registrar?

Dh left for work early today (but still forty minutes later than me) and I've come home to all the curtains will drawn, the beds unmade and the dishwasher still full of clean dishes so all the breakfast stuff on the side when I left he was just getting ds dressed but all the bags and lunches were ready they'd had breakfast so all that needed doing was teeth

Mr Wreck

hope you get something sorted for the migraine Girlie

Will spend a couple of quid on fresh bread, DDs want French toast. Sainsbury ' s worked out just over £65 this week. DH's birthday in a few days so I need to get a card. No idea what to buy him though.